Rumors of US plans for Libya, Syria cause concern

I came across this article today on Deutsche Welle: "Rumors of US plans for Libya, Syria cause concern".

Its main purpose appears to be to discredit a recent infowars.com exclusive: Military Sources Reveal Ground Force Invasion of Libya

"a number of unsubstantiated reports based on anonymous military sources began flooding the Internet claiming that US forces were already being readied for a full-scale ground invasion of Libya.

The alleged military sources at the US Army's Fort Hood base in Texas, where these preparations were said to be taking place, revealed to the Infowars.com website that the invasion was being planned for October. This report spawned a wave of similar extrapolations on the theme of a potential escalation in Libya, again with little solid evidence to back them up."

However, on the same site is another article "Huge Marine Drill Confirms Ground Invasion of Libya", which quotes a CNN article from 19 June "Headed to the beach? Heads up for an invasion force":

"The exercise is designed to test the capability of every type of Marine Corps aircraft, including MV-22 Ospreys and F/A 18 Hornets, as well as some Navy ships and Air Force planes.

The drill will stretch from Quantico Marine Base in northern Virginia to the Navy's Pinecastle Bombing Range in Florida.

With thousands of Marines and other service members involved, it's the biggest such drill ever on the U.S. East Coast."

But that's not all: in a small Spanish provincial news paper, the Diario Cadiz, there is also a world exclusive.

We find that there is a major US military exercise happening at this very moment and until Friday on the south coast of Spain at Barbate not far from Cape Trafalgar which go under the name of Phiflex 2011. However, if you do a search of Phiflex 2011 the only mention comes from the local Spanish newspaper: The Diario de Cadiz (which also covers the US base at Rota).

2400 US marines including the Marine Expeditionary Force are practicing beach assaults and landings.

This goes under the cover of joint exercises with the Spanish armed forces, who, however, are only providing 380 marines along with Piranha armoured fighting vehicles and Harrier jets.

According to the Diario de Cadiz there are up to 4 aircraft carriers participating, along with US planes.

Now it may be just the time of year but there is certainly a lot of marine activity right now.